PDA Heaven!

[Guest Ian Wong]

For all the yuppies, and wanna-be med student keeners like myself, a PDA is a status symbol matched only by a digital-electronic stethoscope. But, you need programs and links to make them work. Check these wonderful websites out:

 

A Hack site with lots of free programs (most are not medical). This site is often down.

www.8bn.com/hambo/index.html

 

Two detailed reviews for deciding which PDA to purchase from a medical perspective.

meds.queensu.ca/~meds2002/PDA.htm

www.members.home.com/priceless/handheld_computers_in_medicine.htm

 

The site to download "Medical Eponyms", a small program that runs off Palm document readers such as isilo.prc or tealdoc.prc

eponyms.net/

 

A listing of reviews for document readers.

www.the-gadgeteer.com/docreaders-review.html

 

Another medically-oriented Palm site with many links.

www.total.net/~drcooper/

 

A great resource of 671 medical resources available for download (and counting...)

www.healthypalmpilot.com/

 

A final review of Palm Pilots.

www.wpic.pitt.edu/residents/Computers/PalmPilot/palmpilot.htm

 

If you have any other links that are useful, please post them below. Let's see if we can't help each other out, and generate a huge resource base here.

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

sdn.pdamd.com/partner/products.xml

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a new neat one I found tonight:

 

www.mindspring.com/~sarahsar/palmpilot.html

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Kirsteen Can MBA]

Ian,

 

Cheers for the Palm links. I received a 5x for Christmas, upon adding it to my wish list after reading some hype about available meds software. Prior to connecting to your links, I wasn't aware that there were so many meds-minded applications.

 

From your experience, do you see many clinicians using them--especially those near the top of the hospital trees, who have been around the clinical blocks a few times? Do you perceive or think that there will be a difference in skill between those who learn the electrolytes, etc., by rote, versus those who recall the info from Palm software?

 

Now to start learning the graffiti...

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

Kirsteen,

 

I know for a fact that many of the third and fourth years have them. The movement to buy these has started in our year as well. From my perspective, these things are here to stay, because the amount of relevant information you can pack on them is truly immense.

 

For example, I can look up a disease, find out it's incidence/prevalence, then look up a differential for it, and find out the current medical treatment of it. That's all accomplished using 5 Minute Clinical Consult (not free). Then, I can check out Epocrates, which will give me notes on medication dosages, contraindications, and combination drug reactions.

 

The bottom line is that most of what we seem to learn in medical school is minutiae, but the only stuff we retain is the large concepts. The Palmpilot is there to help you out with the fine detail. It can't replace clinical thinking or reasoning, but as long as you don't take the approach that it can, I think you'll find them far more beneficial than detrimental.

 

Speaking of which, here's a link to an Adobe program that will allow you to read .pdf files on your Palm.

 

www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforpalm.html

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Kirsteen Can MBA]

Ian,

 

Thanks for the insight re: Palm use. I haven't yet begun to upload the medic software (it is a project to work on once an acceptance rolls in) but from what I've read and what you've mentioned, it sounds like QUITE the resource. Invaluable, no doubt, during PBL sessions.

 

As to postgraduate use, I assume that you'd expect the current generation of medical school graduates to refer to their PDA more often than the majority of clinicians currently in practice, given the prevalence of PDA use at the initial level of medical education?

 

It would be interesting to know if practicing clinicians, primarily hospital-based, are widely using software such as patient tracking, etc., in addition to reference software.

 

Thanks again,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a couple other places you should visit:

 

Diddlebug is a neat and small program that you can use to turn a PalmOS machine into a small Etch-a-Sketch. Instead of using graffiti, you can jot quick notes down by simply drawing on the full screen. It also comes with a countdown alarm. An example of its use could be when someone orders you to do something later. You can record the order far more rapidly than using Graffiti, and then set an alarm to remind you to do your job. It's also a free program.

 

blevins.simplenet.com/palm/

 

Tucows.com is a large repository of software, and if you look on it, you'll find all sorts of goodies that would be relevant to medicine. Unfortunately, lots of what is out there is shareware, so you'll have to pay to keep using the program beyond the trial version, instead of grabbing it for free. In the middle of the screen, there's a yellow/orange box marked Downloads. Click onto PDA there, and Tucows will direct you to the closest mirror site to speed up your downloads.

 

www.tucows.com

 

As for your other points Kirsteen, most clinicians don't use the PDA for patient-tracking. The main reasons include:

 

1) Having to hand-copy out data later for entry into the chart.

 

2) Having to sign out your data to the next person covering your shift.

 

3) A 3x5" index card is simply more flexible, and less vulnerable to breakage, dead batteries, etc.

 

Apparently, there are some hospitals in the States that are apparently set up for this new revolution. You enter the patient's data into your handheld, and you can use the IR port to sync that data into a printer, or the mainframe computer. The next person covering your shift can upload your patient's data into his/her own PDA. However, the major use for them right now is as a rapid access pathway to medical information.

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a smoking link that you should check out.

 

Kent Willyard, MD is a family physician who has been using PDA's for several years in his practice. I originally linked to his site a year or so ago for his premed links, but since then, I've discovered what a great job he's done in really advancing the listings of medical programs available for PalmOS handhelds. Check his website, the "Peripheral Brain" here:

 

pbrain.hypermart.net/

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's another good site, that isn't medicine specific. You'll find plenty of hints and tips to maximize your handheld's performance, and gain access to a very popular list of frequently asked questions for the PalmOS machines.

 

www.palmgear.com

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Kirsteen Can MBA]

Hello,

 

Last week, I was out for dinner with my UT meds 2004 pal, and we were blabbing about Palms. When asked if she is interested in using a Palm during her medical education and beyond, she responded that she was awaiting the release of a colour model that had expandable memory (and lower price tag).

 

I don't know how long it's been on the market--I assume not too long--but Palm has recently released its m505 model: 65K colours and up to 64M in expansion potential. However, for us Canadians, it may be a little challenging to pin down north of the border, as I believe that it's currently only available in the US.

 

Something to investigate, perhaps for all those class of 2005s!

 

(Incidentally, my parents just nipped down to Florida last week, and since I was saving my unwrapped Palmv for the receipt of an acceptance letter, asked them if they could take the v down and try to trade up. If they're successful, I'll let you know how the new iteration works.)

 

Something to investigate.

 

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

Along the lines of www.palmgear.com and www.tucows.com, here's a few more comprehensive sites with medical Palm programs:

 

www.freewarepalm.com/medical/medical.shtml

 

 

Here's another one:

 

home.palmpilotarchives.com/

 

This one is not as user-friendly when trying to quickly browse through the archives. However, it seems to have a lot of different non-medical categories to choose from, so it might be worth flipping through.

 

 

Here's a final one:

 

www.palmblvd.com

 

Here's a neat web-site dedicated to the Palm. It's got a very comprehensive message board system attached to it, with a TON of discussion forums dedicated to each model of PDA's, both PalmOS and WinCE based. There's also a few free downloads.

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's an interesting site written by someone associated with the US military.

 

Some neat downloads here, including an overview strategy from treatment of common GP complaints, lists of developmental milestones, immunization schedules, growth charts, etc.

 

www.healinghandheld.com/mdown.htm

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Wanna download information off the internet and read it on your Palm?

 

Go to shawcable.pda.tucows.com/palm/int_web.html and download Avantgo 3.0, which is the third or so program on the list.

 

This is really mainly an option for those Palm people that have upgraded to at least 16 MB of memory (with 8 MB only, you probably want to dedicate all of that to medical references). It's brain-dead to set up, and now, every time I hot-sync my Handspring Visor, I get a daily copy of CNN news, along with a couple medical journal listings. In a fit of geekiness, using Mapquest.com and Avantgo, I even put a road map into my PDA of the rural town I'll be spending my rural BC elective in, so hopefully I won't get lost on the drive!

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a review of Palm systems and PocketPC handhelds by U of Alberta medstudents. There's also lots of links to software downloads.

 

www.ualberta.ca/~msauofa/computing/handheld/

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest ubctoo]

i am thinking of buying a pda. i don't know much about them but i know that they are handy for medical references. would a visor (visor edge?) or a palm pilot (Vx, VIIx, m505) be a better choice? any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest sugar]

Are handhelds also useful during the pre-clinical years of med school? I can see how they would be helpful when students are in the hospital, but I am not sure about 1st and 2nd year. What does everyone think about this?

 

Thanks,

 

sugar

[Guest Kirsteen Can MBA]

Hi there,

 

Responding to the post directly above, I imagine that PDAs could be helpful in the pre-clinical years during PBL sessions. Additionally, given the crammed schedule of a first year meds student, the to-do list and calendar functions would be invaluable; as would the address book function to maintain your burgeoning list of contacts. Finally, if you do pick up a PDA for use during the pre-clinical years, it gives you plenty of time to get used to its workings for the frequent usage in the clinical years!

 

Regarding choice of PDA, I currently use a Palm m505 and am most pleased with the backlight, colour (no more black and gray), and the memory expansion capability. Given all the different, useful software out there, the latter was a crucial factor in my choice.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a ton more links: I stole many of them off the first website listed. These sites were all put together by med students in the States, and contain quick reviews on what features to look for when shopping for handhelds. The better sites are listed first.

 

Here's a great one to visit first. Hardware reviews, software reviews, links to medical Palm sites, well-organized:

 

www.medschool.louisville.edu/medstudents/palm.html

 

Here's another good site to visit. The Palm reviews are somewhat dated, but there's a lot of good information available here, including short reviews of many common Palm medical programs. Another valuable piece that I haven't seen elsewhere, is a variety of documents and databases that can be downloaded from this site and then viewed on your Palm. There's some interesting-sounding programs here that I'd like to try at a future date, including EKG interpretation documents.

 

www.fammed.wisc.edu/education/res/PilotWeb.htm

 

Here's a site to visit periodically. It has a newsfeed that puts in new Palm-specific headlines. Medically relevant information can be found in linked pages; to get to these, click the links hidden in the yellow title bars on top of the grey boxes on the right side. There are short reviews on many of the common programs along with links to their download sites. There's also a free download here which is a ward-survival manual. I haven't grabbed it yet, but probably will at some time.

 

www.student.med.umn.edu/palmpilot/index.html

 

This is a relatively new site, and probably the best thing it currently has is a link entitled: Guides, Tips, and Tutorials, which leads to other websites that will help you get up to speed if you are a new Palm user.

 

medicine.wustl.edu/~wumpi/gen-home.html

 

This site is under development, so when/if it get's completed, you should visit it then. Until that time, about all it has are a links page to other medical palm sites, and an "emulator" function, which allows you to click and run two different Palm program simulations from your desktop. This might be useful if you'd just like to see how a Palm looks when you run it.

 

endeavor.med.nyu.edu/research/pda/pilot/

 

This one has some information, mostly a short blurb about purchasing Palm Pilots, and then some useful links, most of which are duplicated elsewhere. There's also a really annoying ad in the top frame which makes about half of your monitor unusable.

www.geocities.com/nvmd2b/

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's a neat article on over-clocking your PalmOS PDA. I run my Handspring Visor Deluxe much faster than its standard setting of 16 MHz. On some of the larger programs, such as 5-Minute Clinical Consult (2.7 MB), or the Merck Manual (4 MB), I've run the processor at 37 MHZ using the Afterburner 3.0 program. It makes a significant difference when using the search feature.

 

Anyway, here's the article:

 

www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200102/overclocking001.html

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's an interesting website by Jim Thompson. This website gives his thoughts on the new HandEra 330 and reviews many Palm products, as well as acts as a portal to a small medical PDA webring.

 

www.jimthompson.net/palmpda/

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest tgsavel]

Hi,

 

Just wanted to let you all know about a new piece of software we just developed for the Palm OS! I use it now in my practice, and its a life saver!

 

It's called TestTrakker 2.0 - and it lets you keep track of all the tests you order on your patients. (21-day fully functional trial version available)

 

Med students who have used TestTrakker have given us very positive feedback.

 

You can find out more at www.cedarcovetech.com, or www.testtrakker.com.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an email.

 

Regards,

 

Dr. Tom

[Guest JJ]

How do other brands (Handspring, etc.) compare to Palm? What about those with Windows CE instead of Palm OS?

[Guest Ian Wong]

If they run the PalmOS operating system (ie, Handspring or Palm), then for all intents and purposes they're the same machine with different external packaging. At that point, you'd start selecting out models that fit your requirements as far as size, memory expandibility, processor speed, warranty, price, etc.

 

A lot of people in my class ended up with Handsprings, which from my perspective have been priced lower than the equivalent Palm product, but with easier expandibility. However, I haven't been in the handheld game for the last half a year or so, so I don't know what the current scoop is. For some older reviews comparing different models, check out some of the other links in this thread.

 

As far as WinCE models go, the current rule of thumb is:

 

Bigger, faster, pricier.

 

WinCE products all have faster processors and more memory capacity. (Of course, a WinCE program requires more memory than the identical PalmOS program too) All have colour screens. Any programs you run on the handheld should then be uploadable into a Windows-based computer and used there. The number of medical programs used to be dramatically skewed in the PalmOS category, but there are more and more WinCE programs coming out each day. WinCE handhelds are almost uniformly more expensive, which may make it harder to commit to spending the money, especially if you've never owned a handheld before and don't know if you'll actually use it.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest YongQ]

Does anybody know a cheaper alternative to 5-minute clinical consult? Or are there any older versions out there that are not $60-70 to dl?

 

Thanks!

YONGQ

[Guest phantom8]

For anyone out there who has a Pocket PC, do you know of any free medical software available to download for it? It annoys me that there's so much free stuff out there for the Palm, but next to nothing for the Pocket PC.

 

Also, if there was 1 medical program that you'd shell out the $100 bucks or so to purchase for your Pocket PC, which one would you recommend it to be?

 

Thanks.